


Not Quite a Hundred Percent Approval Rating

by DarkMasterofCupcakes



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Adora doesn't get how babies work, Babies can be gross okay?, Babysitting, Because the baby is their daughter, Crying, Crying babies are She-Ra's true weakness, F/F, F/M, Future AU, Future Fic, Glittery snot, Invisibility Powers, Takes place about 6 years after the Battle of Bright Moon, The Bow/Glimmer is more background stuff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-15
Updated: 2019-02-15
Packaged: 2019-10-29 03:12:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17800031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkMasterofCupcakes/pseuds/DarkMasterofCupcakes
Summary: Adora thought that everyone who didn't side with the Hoarde loved She-Ra. Apparently her seven-month-old "niece" was an exception to this rule.





	Not Quite a Hundred Percent Approval Rating

“You really don’t have to watch her today if you don’t want to,” Bow said again as Adora reached for the infant he was holding, the baby seeming much more interested in the toy she was gumming than any part of the current situation. “I mean, she’s getting a new tooth, so she’s kinda being fussier than usual.” 

The soldier couldn’t help but roll her eyes, though the expression on her face was more amused than irritated. There was a part of her that understood why he was acting like this – she really did – but at the same time, she couldn’t help but find it a little funny that he was acting like this was some kind of big deal. 

“I’ve helped take down armies, gone through years of intense training at the Hoarde, and kept Catra under control when she got her claws on that catnip,” she said, listing off her points on her fingers. She then slipped Michelle out of her father’s arms and into her own as she added, “I think I can handle a fussy baby for a couple hours.” 

Bow still seemed a little uncertain, but after appearing to consider it for a second, decided to let the issue go. Instead, he just leaned down slightly to give the baby a gentle kiss goodbye on the cheek, telling her to behave for Adora until he and Glimmer returned. 

Michelle barely seemed to respond to the affectionate, other than briefly cooing, and completely seemed to ignore the request, instead letting out a gurgle that was somewhat muffled by the plush toy she was currently chewing on in an attempt to pacify herself. 

Having had plenty of experience dealing with an unhappy baby over the past seven months, Bow wasn’t concerned with the lack of response; instead, he gently stroked the dark hair on Michelle’s head for a moment before straightening himself up once more. 

“Well,” he said, now addressing his friend. “You know where to find me and Glimmer if you need us.” 

Adora confirmed what he said, adding that she wouldn’t need them, before the two of them exchanged a brief farewell, the archer going off to meet the princess of Bright Moon for training, and leaving the soldier with the infant. 

Adora couldn’t help but shake her head a little as her friend left. It was like he was forgetting that she’d already had plenty of experience taking care of the baby; after all, this whole babysitting thing had been their routine for the past few months, ever since Glimmer had recovered enough from the birth to be able to resume battle training. 

And, yeah, maybe she’d never taken care of a teething baby, but like she’d pointed out to Bow, she’d dealt with so many things in the past – she was sure this would be no trouble at all. 

Now alone with Michelle, Adora adjusted the baby slightly so that the two were facing each other. 

“So…what’d you wanna do first?” she asked, even though she knew she wasn’t going to get any kind of coherent answer; her charge had only recently started babbling, and even then, what she said was nothing more than what seemed to be a completely random combination of sounds, though with a bit of repetition. 

Sure enough, the baby just stared at her in silence for a second, before turning her attention back to the plush duck in her arms, seeming to babble to herself as she stuffed one of the wings into her mouth. 

“No offense, but I get the feeling this babysitting stuff is gonna be a lot more fun once you can actually talk,” Adora said, speaking mostly to herself. 

It wasn’t that she minded watching Michelle for a couple of hours each day while Bow and Glimmer trained – not at all. Not only did her friends have to make sure they kept their skills as sharp she tried to keep hers – they were still fighting a war against the Hoarde, after all, even if there were times when she almost wanted to believe the tides had begun to turn in their favor, and they all had to be ready for anything; but she also _did_ like spending time with the baby, even if her experience with any child under the age of around ten years old had been very limited prior to Michelle coming along. 

Still, that didn’t mean she wasn’t looking forward to when Michelle got a little older, and these daily babysitting jobs would presumably get a little more entertaining for her. 

Her comment went ignored by the baby, and she shrugged, bending down to place her on the floor. It didn’t seem like she needed anything, so Adora figured it’d be fine to just relax for a little bit until something happened to change that. 

While Michelle continued to gnaw on the wing of her stuffed duck, the soldier took a seat on her bed, which was still rather simple and firm compared to the majority of the beds in Bright Moon, but had started to become a little closer to the standard definition of “comfortable” over the years, and had gotten slightly larger a few years back following the event that led to Catra officially joining the Rebellion and making the decision to stay at Bright Moon. 

Adora sat on the edge of the bed, reclined ever so slightly as she watched Michelle on the floor with her duck. She had just started to allow her mind to wander just a bit – though not much, because a lifetime of learning to always be aware of your surroundings, no matter how safe you felt, was not undone after a little over half a decade, even in a place like Bright Moon – when a small noise from Michelle caught her attention. 

“Hmm?” she hummed, her eyes suddenly glued on the infant sitting on the floor in front of her. “What’s going on?” 

Michelle, of course, didn’t say anything, but Adora could have sworn she saw a slight twinkle in the infant’s eyes before she suddenly dropped her toy and began to (somewhat clumsily) crawl towards the object of her sudden fascination. 

“Where’re you going?” Adora asked in an amused voice, her eyes starting to trail forward to check and see what had apparently made the child decide to abandon the toy she’d been so engrossed in since she’d been left in her care. Her eyes widened and she inhaled sharply as she realized what Michelle was crawling towards – the Sword of Protection, unsheathed and propped up against the desk. 

Eyes still wide, Adora catapulted off of the bed, probably looking enough like Catra that the other former Hoarde Soldier would have had a field day teasing her about the similarities had she been there to see it. Adora didn’t have time to think about that as she darted over to Michelle, scooping the baby off the floor before she could get any closer to the massive sword that she was so determined to reach. 

“No you don’t,” she said, her tone shocking calm despite the fact that her heart was beating a bit faster than normal as she put a bit more distance between the two of them and the sword – which she’d have to at least sheath as soon as she had the chance, if not actually put it away somewhere. 

Michelle let out a whine and started to squirm in Adora’s grasp. The soldier ignored her complaints and instead placed her back on the floor, next to the discarded stuffed toy she’d been so focused on before she’d noticed the sword. 

“Here,” she said, picking up the duck and holding it out like it was some kind of peace offering. “Why don’t you play with your duck again?” 

Still looking unhappy, Michelle reached out and took hold of the toy Adora was offering…and then chucked it as far away as she could (which was actually kind of impressive, Adora had to admit, especially considering how young the kid was), letting out an angry-sounding squawk as the plush fowl went flying. As she started to whine again, the soldier started trying to figure out other ways to calm the fussy infant in her care. 

Figuring that she probably wasn’t hungry or in need of being changed just yet, the logical first attempt seemed to be trying to entertain her; and while the duck had apparently been deemed unworthy of her attention, there were still other options. 

So she tried handing Michelle the other toys that she’d been left with, only for each one to be discarded in a similar manner to the first, even one that was supposed to be particularly useful for soothing the pain from her emerging tooth, which is what Adora had assumed was making her fuss so much. In fact, that one she ended up throwing right at Adora’s head, though the soldier dodged the projectile without any real effort.

Starting to get a little desperate to calm the child, she even attempted to start up a game of “peek-a-boo”, which was a definite favorite of Michelle’s…though considering her tendency to literally vanish from sight whenever the game was instigated, that wasn’t necessarily a good thing; not to mention it was still weird for Adora, someone trained for war and fighting, to get used to the idea of playing a game made to entertain literal infants – but, again, she was starting to get desperate. 

Unfortunately, Michelle completely continued the attempts made to start the game, and just continued to fuss and whine as she sat on the floor of Adora’s room, while the soldier let out a groan of her own. 

“Are you hungry? Is that what’s wrong?” she asked, already starting to grab both the food and the bottle she’d been given in case of this exact situation. 

Once again, her assumption was proven absolutely wrong – Michelle repeatedly turned away from both of the options that were offered to her, no matter how hard Adora tried to encourage her to open her mouth. So, apparently she wasn’t hungry after all. Now completely at a loss for what to do, Adora got down on her knees so she was more on the level of her charge. 

“Come on, Michelle, you gotta give me a little bit of a break here,” she said, unable to keep the tiredness from showing up in her voice. “What do you want?” 

She knew that she could get Bow or Glimmer if she really needed to, but she really didn’t want to interrupt them over something like this; especially not when she’d made such a big deal out of assuring Bow that she wouldn’t have any trouble handling this exact situation. But, now the baby was starting to fuss more and more, and she was starting to run out of options on how to get her to stop, and with the way her luck was going so far, chances were someone was going to discover how much she was messing up with what should have been an easy enough task – something she’d done about a hundred times by this point…

Still trying to think of something to get Michelle to quiet down, Adora looked around the room, scanning for something, anything that she thought could be useful in that particular endeavor. 

Her eyes fell on the Sword. There was a part of her brain that mentally slapped herself for not thinking of this solution earlier; it was probably pretty obvious, now that she’d actually thought of it. Whenever she visited Plumeria, the children there were always thrilled whenever she transformed into She-Ra, with the appearance of the giant warrior being enough to bring them obvious joy, regardless of how they felt beforehand. 

She smiled and briefly reached over to pat the dark brownish-purple hair on Michelle’s head before quickly getting to her feet. 

With the baby seeming to get more and more agitated by the second, Adora found herself moving quickly to pick up the Sword, almost desperate to put her plan into action and finally get her to calm down. 

As soon as she had her hand grasped around the pommel, she lifted the blade above her head, calling out, “For the honor of Grayskull!” 

Instantly, she felt herself being transformed into her alter ego, a sensation that, even after all these years, still felt both exhilarating…and a little strange, if she was being totally honest. Especially in a case like this, where she wasn’t going into any sort of battle. 

Still, she smiled upon noticing that Michelle had stopped fussing and whining; it seemed like her plan had worked perfectly. 

The smile quickly faded as she saw the expression on Michelle’s face; though she was no longer crying, she definitely did not look happy: her purple eyes were wide, and she almost looked concerned as she started looking around the room, letting out a noise that was something between a whimper and a whine. Tears welled up in her eyes, and less than a second later, the baby began to cry, the tears falling down her cheeks. 

“Oooh, this is worse,” Adora said to herself, quickly sheathing the word onto her back and racing over to the baby. 

She knelt down to pick Michelle up, doing her best to remain calm as she lifted up the child, asking, “What’s wrong?” 

Any sense of calm vanished in the span of about a tenth of a second, as pretty much the second Adora had picked up Michelle, the infant’s cries had gone from the cries of an unhappy baby, to flat-out shrieks that made even the hardened soldier flinch a little from both the volume and the shock. 

“What’d I do?” she practically squeaked, unsure at the moment if she was speaking to herself or trying to ask the baby what she’d apparently done to warrant this sort of response. Michelle, of course, didn’t answer the question, unless one counted her continued shrieking and wailing as an answer. 

Starting to really freak out inside, Adora – still as She-Ra, as she didn’t have the time to change back right now – practically kicked open the door, while carrying the still wailing infant in her arms. Maybe she could handle a fussy baby, or even a crying baby, but even she had to admit that this was a bit beyond her skill level, especially considering she had literally zero idea of why Michelle was suddenly screaming so much, and so loudly. As much as she didn’t like to admit it, Adora needed help, and fast. 

She walked quickly down the halls of Bright Moon – with the only reason she wasn’t running being that she didn’t want to risk making whatever was wrong with the baby even worse by jostling her – alternating between muttering frantically to herself and desperately trying to see if she could get Michelle to calm down with pretty much each step she took. 

If anything, Michelle just seemed to get more and more agitated with each passing second; not only was she still screaming, but it seemed like she was barely taking the time to catch her breath, considering how red her face had become. 

Adora let out a brief sigh of relief as she paused in screaming to take in a breath…only to start up again as soon as her lungs had gotten that brief reprieve. And in that instance, all sense of relief evaporated from the soldier’s face, and she continued on her mission to try and find someone who could help her with the baby. 

Out of the corner of her eye, she realized that the child had completely vanished from sight and for one horrible moment, she genuinely feared that maybe she’d actually _dropped_ her at some point; it was only the fact that she could still feel the slight pressure – she couldn’t even really call it a weight, with how light the baby felt, especially considering She-Ra’s strength – against her arm and body, as well as the squirming, that helped her realize that wasn’t the case, before she started screaming herself. 

She was so distracted by her own thoughts that she didn’t realize she wasn’t alone until she heard a familiar voice ask over the din, “What the hell is going on, Adora?!” 

Adora tensed up slightly at the sound – mostly just because she hadn’t been expecting it – and turned to see Catra standing near to her side, her hands covering her ears, her tail bristled and flicking from side to side, and her eyes showing a combination of confusion and especially anger. 

Adora was about to try and explain the situation, when suddenly Michelle came back into view, her face still red and covered in tears and a combination of what looked like snot and glitter as she twisted around in Adora’s arms, reaching out towards a very confused Catra. 

She took the crying baby from her girlfriend without saying a word, though Adora could see the unspoken question in her eyes as the exchange was made. Within seconds of being in Catra’s arms, Michelle began to calm down, her cries dying down almost immediately, though her face was still a mess and she started to hiccup as she caught her breath after the workout her lungs had just gotten. 

“So…” Catra began, cringing as Michelle buried her face in her shoulder – no doubt smearing the glittery snot into the fabric of her shirt – and scanning the mystic warrior standing before her, “What’s going on here?” 

Still a little frazzled from the recent experience, Adora took a breath before starting to tell Catra about what had happened to her over the past twenty minutes, everything from Bow leaving Michelle in her care as usual, to the screaming fit that had erupted upon her picking up the crying baby, which had led her to this moment. 

Catra stayed quiet as Adora told her story, though her expression would change periodically. When she was done with the explanation, a small smirk tugged at the corners of the former Force Captain’s lips, causing her to look like she was desperately trying not to look amused. 

“No offense, Adora,” Catra began, adjusting her hold on the baby slightly. “But I can’t exactly say I blame her for freaking out when you grabbed her. I mean, pretty sure anyone with half a brain would have the same reaction to a giant picking them up.” 

Adora’s cheeks turned a very slight shade of pink upon having this pointed out – the change so faint that anyone who didn’t know her very well probably wouldn’t have even noticed the difference in the color of her cheeks. Thankfully, Catra didn’t seem to deem it worth her time to tease her over it, and just watched as Adora transformed back to her usual self. 

It was at that moment that Michelle looked up from where she’d buried her face into Catra’s shoulders, turning slightly to look over at her. Sniffling slightly, the baby looked at her curiously for a moment before letting out a soft coo and actually smiling for the first time since her father had left her with the soldier. Adora couldn’t help but return the smile as she reached out to carefully take the baby back into her arms. 

“You feeling okay now?” she asked, the question honestly addressed as much to herself as it was to Michelle. Before she could get any kind of response, Adora added, “I am gonna have to clean you up before your mom and dad get done with training, though…” 

She also muttered an apology to Catra as she noticed the now very sparkly section of her shirt, with the other former Hoarde soldier waving the apology offering, muttering something about it being easy enough to clean – and she had other shirts to wear in the meantime, anyway. 

Instead, she glanced between the baby and her girlfriend and casually asked, “You want any help with her until Glimmer and Bow get back?” 

There was a part of Adora that almost felt insulted at the suggestion (as well as a little surprised, since usually Catra wasn’t one to suggest getting assistance, for herself or for others), but upon taking a moment to think about it, she realized that maybe it would be useful to have someone by her side for this particular day of babysitting; just considering how…”eventful” it had already been, despite barely a quarter of the time having passed. 

So, swallowing her pride a little, she just nodded her head silently.

**Author's Note:**

> Poor Adora has no idea how child development works, so she doesn't get that a seven-month-old like Michelle here doesn't fully get the idea of object permanence: that something can be outside your field of vision, or change in appearance, and still be the same thing. So, how else do you expect the poor kid to react when her "Auntie" is suddenly gone, and she's apparently been left alone with this weird giant lady she doesn't know? 
> 
> This was inspired both by the image of Adora desperately looking for Glimmer after she accidentally destroyed her bed in episode four of season one, as well as the scene from the Steven Universe episode "Three Gems and a Baby", where Baby Steven starts to cry upon Garnet unfusing, due to believing she was just gone and missing her.


End file.
